"Internalizing"

Kaavya Viswanathan is a teenager of ethnic Indian origin. She's also a student at Harvard. And she's currently in the news for various reasons. After receiving a half a million for her book titled How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life, she was in line for confirming a movie deal for her book; when came the news that Kaavya seemed to have plagiarized passages from another writer (Megan McCafferty) and her literary works (if you could really call chick lit literary works of any sort). She later released a statement to the press explaining that:

"I wasn't aware of how much I may have internalized Ms. McCafferty's words. I am a huge fan of her work and can honestly say that any phrasing similarities between her works and mine were completely unintentional and unconscious."

A few columnists since then have pointed out the irony of her finally coming up with something original, even if it was just an apology, by use of the word internalize.

That irony apart, I haven't read her book, nor do I wish to comment on it's substance. I'd probably never read it, or any of McCafferty's work either. But I guess it's a sobering turn in the story of a young girl of ethnic (read non-white ) background. Whether it's her fault or her publishers' or her book packager's, she screwed up! You're really depraved if you're ripping off someone else's work from a bad genre anyway to write your book. Kinda like copying/plagiarizing answers from the last placed student's solutions to the class final final exam.



I saw this piece on ABC news late nite that alterted me to this new phenom , a variation to conventional Yoga - broadly termed as Christian Yoga. The motivation for this seems to be that some people are not comfortable with the Hindu chanting that accompanies Yoga sessions, and want to make it Christian. Notice the absence of any guilt at the bastardisation of the form of worship of another religion.

Great - so now the Christians are out there internalizing aspects of Hinduism and Hindu worship (not for the first time too!). Whatever. These ignorant idiots are deliberately ignoring the implications of this plagiarizing of another religion's form of worship. And this is hardly the first or the last instance of all things Asian that have been bastardized by the West.

But what about the influence of music and movies from the west (or other parts of the world) in Indian pop culture? There are so many instances of obvious direct rip-offs in songs, scenes and complete movies in Bollywood (commercial Hindi cinema). Obviously plagiarization of all sorts is absolutely rampant in today's society. You could call it inspiration, imitation, internalization. Or whatever else you can come up with. Everybody's doing it.

The bottomline is that to get to success & fame fast, it's easy to rip off someone else's work to cash in on their success or what worked right for them. There's almost guaranteed success in that direction. Only thing of consequence, when you haven't bothered to acknowledge your original source for the inspiration and pay due respects to them, is the 11th commandment (internalized from Jeffrey Archer who internalized it from the 10 commandments) - Thou shalt not get caught!

Recluse

Old habits die hard. Phone's ringing. It's the middle of the afternoon. The blinds reluctantly filter the sunlight into my room. They're on my side - the blinds I mean. I don't really want the sun in. I am still lying on my bed. And the phone's ringing. And then it stops.

It's back to the silence that probably preceded the phone call. Except, now I am awake once again. Since drifting off to sleep the last time the ringer went off. Then and now, just rode out the ringing without really doing anything. Several moments later, I finally turn to my side and pick up the mobile phone. Check caller ID.

F*&k! Should've taken this call. But, now's not the time to return the call and chat.

No. Not now. Now's not that time. Now's the time to wallow in listlessness; in the feeling that the sh*t's coming down hard all around me, but I am loath to respond to the situation.

Not that it's raining down that hard 'round me - the sh*t I mean. A little too opera-like that description - it's probably a good deal measure off the mark anyways. Whatever. (These are dark times indeed!) I stumble out of bed and a few necessary tasks later during which time quietly transpires itself by - walk the 10 minutes it takes me to get to the place I work at. Since I didn't specify if I walk those 10 minutes that it usually takes me to get to work - to actually walk to work or walk to somewhere else - I should tell you that thats what I do. That is - I walk those 10 minutes it takes me to get to work - to actually walk and get to work.

Once in the building, I try and avoid contact with people for the most part.

Khan Kan't or Kan He?

Well, it's happened. Salman (Nanga) Khan has been granted bail in a poaching case for which he had been earlier sentenced to 5 years in jail. Not that I am greatly surprised or something.

I did read about the Bishnoi tribe in Rajasthan, their vegetarianism, and their reverence of all nature (plant and animal life included - not just the usual lip service we pay to humanity and human rights). There are several sources available on the net about that. Here's this one for instance, relating a chilling incident in which hundreds of Bishnois, starting with Amrita Devi, laid down their lives protecting the trees in their vicinity. The Bishnoi lands are now off limits to hunters and the Black Buck, an animal held in great regard by the Bishnois, are protected species.
Salman Khan went to jail for killing a few of the same Black Buck (picture of one shown alongside). He killed a few deer in about 2 or 3 separate incidents spread over a week. There are several varying accounts of his hunting trips. But there is no denying that he did commit those acts.

Now that he's out on bail, he, his supporters and the legions of fans propping him will of course rejoice. But what about the Bishnois? How are they going to feel? Salman Khan and his entrouge came, shot and brutally killed their precious animals. He brutally violated their principles and their beliefs. If I was a Bishnoi, damn right I'd be pissed off as hell.

I don't know Salman, but its obvious from his actions in this case - this man considers himself far above the law that ordinary citizens have to obey. Of course, in many ways he is. As soon as news came of his arrest, there were tons of newspaper articles professing how much Salman loves animals, and how he's being persecuted because of his celeb status. Now how many of us have the power to do that? Of course, he's free now.

And that considerable power not withstanding, why must we pick on poor Salman? Salman the animal lover owns several dogs (its amazing how constantly people harp on how owning dogs and cats makes someone animal lovers - and then they promptly go about and have a large piece of steak for dinner!) keeps pets in his farmhouse, including keeping protected animals (illegally). Even if he did poach, so what? Thousands of animals are poached in India every year, and only a few are ever caught and prosecuted.

But so what if there are thousands of poachers out there still scot-free? I know this one was caught. And since people in India love to emulate their celebrity role models, I'd like to see this notorious role model for how to consistently get away with defying the law, idling in jail. Nail him. Make an example of this chump. Yup, I lean towards the side of the Bishnois. History has showed that they've put down their lives protecting their environment and truly consider all of nature sacred. That if anything is an ideal worth holding sacred and worth protecting.

And now that he's free, I would consider it equal payback if the Bishnois hunted down Salman Khan in the streets of Mumbai, shot him down with an arrow or a bullet, knelt beside his struggling self and slit his throat in cold blood (just like he killed one of the Black Bucks) and walked away free. Since Salman is above the law so must his killer be. Thats fair.

B for Bictory. B for Bendetta. B for Bishnoi.

I'll leave you with a picture of Nanga Khan celebrating after his release. I poached this picture off Mid-Day's site . He would be so proud of me.


P.S. Is that Helen (the great, voluptuous, yesteryear vamp - now Salman's step-mom) up in the balcony with him? Hmm... a couple of decades ago, the crowds would have waited for her to do what her step-son's been busy doing here. Now... Ah well! Such is life!

Onion Head

Growing up in Bombay has a lot to do with it. Potatoes (Batata) and onions (Kaanda) are staple diet for me. I can eat potatoes morning, noon, night, and still want more the next day, and still more all week.

But back to onions. There's just something about them that makes
me feel that no meal (I mean at the very least, no Indian meal) is complete without it. Chop it up fine and sprinkle it over daal or rajma or even some achaar, or saute em' in a little oil, add a few spices and then cook the rest of the vegetables all this while eagerly anticipating the moment you're going to bite into your dish, especially anticipating the taste of the onions soaked up in the spices. Mmmm!

Can you imagine eating the best streetside pav bhaaji without topping off the bhaaji with some onions? Or bhel?

And not to forget sandwiches or burritos. A good veggie bread sandwich, toasted or untoasted isn't complete without onions. A good burrito is also not complete without onions. That reminds me, another good use for onion is mixing them up with some hot jalapeno peppers in a food processor to make some tangy hot dip for your tortilla chips.

Italian food without sauteed onions just seems so blaaah sometimes! And imagine a garden omlette without onions (and peppers for that matter)! How can you eat greasy hashbrowns at Waffle House without having them smothered with onions?

I've even discovered a complete good-breath-destroyer little variation to eating potato chips. That's right. Add some chopped raw onions to your bowl of potato chips.

And it's not just me that them onions have me by my onions (ahem!). Onions (their scarcity rather) have brought down several governments in India. Back home (i.e. India), any government that does not keep the price of onions down under control is playing with fire. Who cares if onion scarcity or higher prices will reduce the number of people with bad breath by 66.67%?! (The other 33.33% are made up of garlic, and garlic + onion lovers - according to leading researchers in the area. That should convince you about its authenticity since I used the word research to back my claim!)

One day I will describe to you in boring detail how much the potato has been a part of my life since my earliest memories of eating. And I'm sure you'll be looking forward to that moment when your time will be totally wasted once again.

(pics courtesy: spacebar.blogsome.com, www.cok.net/lit/recipes/)

Bangladesh tigers on the prowl

Cricket's worst Test team Bangladesh had the best Test team (better than even the second best by a mile) Australia on the ropes on the 1st day of the 1st Test between Australia and Bangladesh.

Although the series is being played in Bangladesh, and that usually means flat, placid pitches at least for the first 3 days, the quantum leap they've made in terms of performances in the last couple of years has been very very promising. What's even more inspiring about their first day's performance is that they're playing against an almost full strength Aussie team fresh from their 3-0 cleanup of South Africa in South Africa.

Now if only they can bowl Australia out for a low score - it'll get the cynics up and about talking excitedly of how they always knew Bangladesh had it in them to scare the great Aussies and how it's good for the game, and blah, blah... At the very least, it'll stop them from crying for dismissal of Test status for Bangladesh.

Why do I care so much about Bangladesh cricket? I don't really. I just like the fact that the underdogs in this case are taking the Goliaths from down under, and hitting them hard so far. I always enjoyed a good scrap - especially when someone else is doing all the fighting. Heh! Heh!

Real Democracy is...

... all about choice.

Choice between:

Coke or Pepsi
Adidas or Nike
Britney or Jessica or ColdPlay or something even sissier
(please add more real difficult choices that we face here)


Fake democracy is...

...actually being given choices that allow us to make a difference.

We don't want fake democracy. Give me the real deal every time.